Marketing Public Relations (MPR):

As marketing and public relations expanded their spheres of activities and as they became more
aggressive in communicating with more and more and ever-larger publics, they often ended up
talking to the same publics, and they sometimes used the same techniques to do it. But, even
when their actions appeared to be similar to outsiders such as the consuming public, the
practitioners themselves knew that their two disciplines were conceptually very different.

"Marketing and public relations, both are major external functions of the firm and both share a
common ground in regard to product publicity and consumer relations. At the same time,
however, they operate on different levels and from different perspectives and perceptions.

The traditional view is that marketing exists to sense, serve, and satisfy customer needs at a
profit. Public relations exists to produce goodwill in the company's various publics so that the
publics do not interfere in the firm's profit-making ability." - Public Relations: Concepts and
Practices Book.

Marketing Public Relations

Marketing promotes the transfer of
Public relations helps an
goods and services from the
organization and its publics adapt
producer and provider to the
mutually to each other.
consumer.

Public relations' immediate goal is

Marketing's immediate goal is sales. mutual understanding or positioning
of the organization with its publics.

Public relations' implicit goal is

Marketing's implicit goal is profit. positive perceptions and
predispositions.

Marketing's measure of success is Public relations' measure of success

the number of sales and/or the is expressed public opinion or other
revenue it generates. evidence of public support.
Marketing seeks help of public relations in attaining its goal, making MRP a key function of
Public Relations. MPR goes beyond simple publicity and pays an important role in the following
tasks:

 Assisting in the launch of new products

 Assisting in repositioning a mature product
 Building interest in a product category
 Influencing specific target groups
 Defending products that have encountered negative publicity
 Building the corporate image in a way that reflects favorably on its products

MPR can contribute to the following objectives:

 Build awareness
 Build credibility
 Stimulate the sales force and dealers
 Hold down promotional costs

The major medium of MPR communications are:

1. Publications: Companies rely on extensively on published materials to reach and

influence their target markets. These include annual reports, brochures, articles, company
newsletters, magazines and audiovisuals
2. Events: Companies can draw attention to new products or other company activities by
arranging special events like news conferences, seminars, exhibits, contests,
anniversaries, sponsorship in sports and cultural events
3. News: Create favorable news about the company, its products and people. News
generation requires skill in developing a story concept, researching it and writing a press
release.
4. Speeches: The speeches of Chairman or Managing Director of reputed company at their
Annual General Meetings (AGM) are one of widely used tools.
5. Public service activities: Companies can build goodwill by contributing money and time
to good causes
6. Cause related marketing: It addresses the social issues of the day by providing
resources and funds, while focusing on the marketing objectives of the company.
7. Identity media: Companies need a visual identity that the public immediately
recognizes. The visual identity is carried by company logos, stationery, brochures, signs,
business forms, business cards, buildings, uniforms and dress codes.

PR and direct-response marketing can work together to achieve specific marketing

objectives, which are:
  Build marketplace excitement before media advertising breaks
 Build a core consumer base
 Build a one-to-one relationship with consumers
 Turn satisfied customers into advocates
 Influence the influential

Evaluating results:

The 3 most commonly used measures of MPR effectiveness are:

 Number of exposures carried by the media:

Publicist supply the client with a clippings book showing all the media that carried news about
the product alongwith a summary statement this measure is not very effective as it contains no
indication of how many people have actually read, heard or recalled the message and in what
way they have thought about that. Nor does it contain information on the net audience reached as
publications overlap in readership. But publicist’s goal is reach and not frequency and hence the
number of unduplicated exposures has to be measured.

 Awareness, comprehension or attitude change:

Did the release create awareness or impact on the target audience? One has to check whether
there has been any change of attitude among the public or not. After the awareness has been
created, attitudes will change only when the audience will be able to comprehend the press
release. If everything happens as per expectation then this is a better measure over the previous
one.

 Contribution to sales and profits:

Finally the last measure of MPR effectiveness tries to see the direct contribution to the business
in terms of sales and hence profits. This is the best one among the three because whatever be the
promotional exercise for marketing the ultimate goal is customer satisfaction and hence long
term profits through sales increase. So this measure hits the bull’s eye in measuring the
effectiveness.